--- For Immediate Release ---
As Demand for Slavery Compensation Grows, 12th Session of World Tribunal on Reparations for African People in the U.S. Convenes November 15-16, 2003; 1982 Guilty Verdict to Be Expanded

What: International Tribunal on Reparations for Black People in the U.S.
When: November 15-16, 2003
Where: International House, 3701 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
Contact: International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement, (727) 502-0575

On November 15th and 16th, 2003, the 12th Session of the International Tribunal on Reparations for African People in the U.S. will convene in Philadelphia. In 1982, black people, denied recourse through domestic courts, put the U.S. government on trial for violating international law in its treatment of the African community. An international panel of judges found the U.S. guilty and owing $4.1 trillion dollars in stolen labor alone, with damages yet to be set for pain and suffering. Subsequent sessions of the Tribunal have compiled further testimony and evidence that has been entered into the growing body of documentation supporting the demand of African people for reparations.

The 2003 Tribunal session takes place in the context of a growing movement for reparations for black people. 11 sessions of this Tribunal, held in various cities since 1982, have popularized the reparations demand in black communities throughout the U.S. In 1989, Michigan Congressman John Conyers introduce H.R.40, a bill that he has submitted every year since, in an effort to establish a “Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans”. Beginning with Aetna in 2000, Deadria Farmer-Paellmann has initiated lawsuits against numerous U.S. corporations demanding reparations for profits gained from slavery. At the 2001 United Nations-sponsored World Conference Against Racism the great majority of the world’s countries gave their support for the demand for reparations, declaring that the enslavement and colonization of African people by Europe and America was a crime against humanity.

The International Tribunal on Reparations for African People in the U.S. is based upon international laws including the U.N. Human Rights Charter and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Chimurenga Waller is President of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement, sponsor of the upcoming Tribunal. He says “400 years is too long to owe anybody anything! African people demand our human rights to self-determination and reparations under international law.”

This year’s session in Philadelphia will focus on the issues of police brutality and the prison and education systems. Scheduled witnesses include:

I hope and pray that this trial takes us to greater heights. The U.S. know that they are wrong for what they did tour ancestors and they need to live up to it. They need to take responsibility for their actions. We deserve to reap benefits and to be reprimanded. I think we should not have to pay taxes upon being reprimanded. The U.S. should bend over backwards for us.

It's funny how the Native American's are getting reparations as long as you are registered. You reap the benefits if you live in Oklahoma. Yeah you have to be a Oklahoma resident but at least they still get something. The fact is that they are getting something for their troubles. What about our ancestors and what they went through. The U.S. cares more about other cultures but they care less about us. I think that it is unfair. When some of these foreigners hit American soil they get money to support their families. When we brought here we were free labor.